1. Technical Field
This invention relates to a vehicle seat and, more particularly, to a power operable vehicle seat assembly for assisting a user to readily enter and exit a vehicle.
2. Prior Art
The use of vehicle seats is known in the prior art. More specifically, vehicle seats heretofore devised and utilized are known to consist basically of familiar, expected and obvious structural configurations, notwithstanding the myriad of designs encompassed by the crowded prior art which have been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
Presently-used vehicular seats, such as the conventional car passenger seat in the automobile, are not well-equipped to accommodate persons for whom there is considerable difficulty in seating himself or herself on the seat and getting up from the seat when exiting from the vehicle. So-called swivel seats have been known for a long time, but these typically consist of a simple vehicular seat that pivots about a vertical axis, which vertical axis may or may not be eccentrically positioned relative to the mid-plane of the seat taken from front-to-rear of the vehicle. This swiveling of the seat allows easier egress from the vehicle, since the seat faces toward the doorway of the vehicle. In some instances, especially in an offset-pivot axis, such pivotal movement toward the door would permit the seated person to implant his or her feet directly on the ground after the seat has been pivoted to face toward the door. However, these swivel seats are not meant for use by handicapped and elderly persons, but simply to serve to help one into and out of the vehicle in a faster and easier manner.
Various improvements have been made over the years, such as a rotating vehicle seat. In many cases, the passenger entry/exit assistance in such a rotating vehicle seat is performed by combining two movements, i.e., a horizontally rotating movement and a longitudinal sliding movement. In such a rotating vehicle seat with rotating and sliding mechanisms, when the rotating and sliding seat movements are performed by an operator or helper, the operator's load can become especially heavy, in particular, when a heavy person is sitting on the seat.
In order to reduce the operator's load a rotating vehicle seat that performs a rotating movement and a sliding movement of the seat by means of an electric motor has been proposed. However, in the above known rotating vehicle seat, the construction of the driving mechanism is complicated, and more space is necessary to store the driving mechanism within the vehicle. For this reason, it is difficult to use the known rotating vehicle seat in a small-sized vehicle.
Accordingly, a need remains for a power operable vehicle seat assembly to overcome the above-noted shortcomings. The present invention satisfies such a need by providing a seat assembly that is easy to install and use, and further provides convenience, safety, and comfort to the user. Such an assembly greatly improves the maneuverability of a handicapped individual by allowing them access to a vehicle that they might not have been able to access prior to installation of the seat assembly.